


The Prince and the Pauper(s)

by Justawriter68



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Baekhyun is about to go on an adventure, M/M, Multi, Prince of the Campus Minseok, Rivals to Lovers, Slow Burn, Soccer Captain Minseok, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:34:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22767091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Justawriter68/pseuds/Justawriter68
Summary: Baekhyuns determined to make this spring his best ever. Not only that it’s his last chance to confess to the resident Prince Charming on campus, Senior Kim Minseok.But before that can happen, he’s gotta contend with his rival Jongdae.And maybe the both of them have to accept they may have started to see each other than just rivals along the way.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Kim Jongdae | Chen/Kim Minseok | Xiumin, Do Kyungsoo | D.O/Kim Jongin | Kai/Park Chanyeol
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10
Collections: Unrestricted Love Poly Fic Fest





	The Prince and the Pauper(s)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! ah, this is my entry for the UL Poly fest, I would like to congratulate the mods on running a successful round and being so awesome! 
> 
> My prompt number #NAU007 So to the prompter I hope you enjoy what I have here. And don't worry I'll be back to finish as this became a little bit of a monster as it was my first time tackling Poly! 
> 
> Please enjoy!

The spring air was full of the fresh blooming of the newly opened flowers, garden beds and bushes alive with the humming of bees and the tweeting of birds. It was truly a sign for the new beginnings, new semester, new friends, and new relationships. 

And Baekhyun was determined to make this semester his best one yet, not that he was at all near his final semester of university, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t have anything planned after all there was one certain goal on his list that was time sensitive.

And it had a lot of competition to achieve it. 

This achievement came in the form of Senior Kim Minseok, the university’s Prince Charming. 

The name wasn’t just given out because of the looks, and if you asked Baekhyun, that was only part of the package, the man literally looked and acted like he was from a Disney movie. His prince status earned through his actions, during and away from school. 

It was like he walked straight out of a comic book or something. 

He was going to confess to the Senior before he graduated in May, if even if it was going to be the last thing he did. 

And nothing was going to get in his way. 

Lost in his thoughts of the impending semester, he hadn’t realized that he had sort of been blocking the walk way.

It’s brought to his attention with a soft tap on his shoulder, he whirls around, apology on the tip of his tongue. That is until he’s literally faced with the object of his affections standing there in all of his glory, it made any words that he had slip away when fully confronted with the man, who at the moment was looking absolutely adorable with a slight confused look on his face as he regarded Baekhyun’s struck expression. 

Finally, he’s able to form words from the column of air in his chest. “S-Sorry, Sunbaenim!” He manages, moving a little off to the side, his feet now touching the lawn of the Quad as he feels his cheeks absolutely light up in embarrassment. 

The elder chuckles slightly, his catlike eyes crinkling up with his smile. It was enough to make anyone who met him melt just the tiniest but inside. “No need to apologize, enjoy the rest of your day!” 

The elder walks past with his group of friends, as captain of the school soccer team Not only was the elder well liked, but he was athletic too, so everyone knew who he was on the campus even if they had never met him before. His name seemed to whisper through the trees like spring cherry blossoms, swirling through the air no matter where you went or what season. 

Baekhyun thinks he must have a bit of a problem.  


With a sigh, he watches the elder walk away with the rest of his friends, probably towards some mid morning practice. He's in total peace until he feels a hand on his shoulder and an ever so annoying voice. 

“Nice job, Byun, it’s only the beginning of the semester and you’re starting out on a _great_ foot.” 

An all too familiar voice filters into his ears, and he immediately sighs, eyes rolling as he shrugs the arm off his shoulders. “Don’t you have to be annoying somewhere else, Kim.” 

Baekhyun glared at the other student, when mentioning the other obstacles the other student was certainly one of them. The Vocal was not only his rival in education here, but as well as love. Since the moment they’d met it had been competition, even more so since they’d found out they shared the same love interest. 

He wore that infamous, kittenish grin that everyone else found _so_ charming, the one that made him want to wipe it off of the others face every time he saw it. 

“Don’t you have someone else to annoy, perhaps they’ll listen to your blabbering, Kim.” the other vocal student glares. 

This only makes the other smirk just a little wider, a more of a challenging sparkle in his eye. “Come now, Byun, it's the beginning of the semester. Shouldn’t you be the least more hospitable?” 

Baekhyun scoffs, The other student, had always had this particular way of getting under Baekhyun's skin, like he had a special talent for it or something. Like he actually enjoyed doing it, and the aspiring vocalist was beginning that it might be the case. 

Kyungsoo would argue, and still does, that its sexual tension under all of the bickering that they do. 

That was madness to him, he couldn't even imagine liking the other in that capacity, they would be more than likely to kill each other first. 

Not trying to spend another breath on the other student more than he had to on his very first day, he just decides to keep on pushing, heading to his first class. 

"See you around, Byun!" The loud voice calls from behind him. 

By lunch, he's pretty sure that this semester was going to kill him, the syllabus was already becoming his worst enemy. He was going to be buried in practice time, he'd probably see the practice rooms more than he would see his own damn bed room. 

And that's how his friends find him, head slumped over on the cool of the cafeteria table. 

"Is he alright?" 

"I'm not sure, Baek, are you still alive?" firm poke to his side. 

"Is it too late to reconsider, college? Maybe I'll just busk for money."

"H'es alright," Kyungsoo confirms as he takes a seat next to his best friend. 

Chanyeol following suit on the other side of the smaller, glasses clad boy. 

"It's only the first day, how can you be in complete breakdown mode already?" The literary student takes a bite of the food he had prepared for himself at lunch. Next to him, Chanyeol was begging for a bite, the smaller coincides with a sigh giving him the first bite from his spoon. 

If Chanyeol had a tail, it would be wagging.

"Well, I'm sure our professors are trying to kill all of us. We've already got studio time coming up soon, my voice is going to die this semester." 

Kyungsoo hums thoughtfully as indication that he was listening. 

"As if that wasn't enough, I literally ran into Minseok and fell flat on my ass... not only that but Kim just had to be there to see it!" He lets out an annoyed huff, before turning his head slightly to look from the ground to the pair beside him. "Where's jongin?" 

“Nini is talking with one of his professors about a showcase, already." The smaller pops some bread into his mouth. "You know how he gets." 

Baekhyun, moves from leaning his forehead against the table to leaning on his arms so he could look at his friends more comfortably. "How has your day gone so far?" 

"Good, you know its syllabus week, so we're not drowning in papers or books yet..." Chanyeol steals the piece of chicken that Kyungsoo had been preparing, and he replies to it with a playful glare. "But, that is if you don't count what I've picked up from the bookstore, and the ones I have coming in." 

Chanyeol responds with a thumbs up, the redhead responding with a mostly empty mouth. "Good, but Min-hyung is making us have a practice this evening." 

Kyungsoo frowns. "Yeol, manners." 

"Sorry," The taller gives a smile, that usually could get him out of some reasonable trouble with the smaller male. 

"Oh?" Baekhyun says, it was easy to tell by his demeanor that he was obviously interested about the practice. 

Kyungsoo could only smile and sigh about how obvious the other was. "Really? How long is he going?" 

"I honestly don't know, its his senior year so I know he's gonna go hard on us..." The red head groans. "I can feel my knees ache already." 

Kyungsoo chuckles in sympathy. "There, there you'll be alright. We're all still young after all." 

"Is it too late to quit?" Chanyeol pouts. "That means I would have more time to spend with you and Nini." He bargains. 

"You know Hyung would skin you alive if you did." Jongin says as he comes to the table, pressing kisses to both Kyungsoo and Chanyeol's heads."I doubt you want to be on the receiving end of that instead." 

Chanyeol glowers a little, resting his head on Jongin's shoulder after he removes his book bag. But he knew they were right, if Chanyeol were to quit, they would lose their star goalie, something to be immensely displeased about. 

Kyungsoo smiles at he pair tenderly for a moment, before he turns his gaze back to his best friend. "So Jongdae has already made himself known for the semester?" Kyungsoo smirks just a tiniest bit. 

Baekhyun groans. "He saw it all, ' _Nice job, Byun_.'" the vocal student does a terrible imitation of the others voice. “I just wanna knock that smirk of his off of his face.” 

"I don't know why you two don't get a room already." Kyungsoo deadpans. 

"You want to be assistant to a homicide, I'll be sure to tell them that you suggested we 'get a room'." 

Kyungsoo only shakes his head exasperatedly, deciding to drop the subject for now, he had more chances to antagonize him later. 

"Eat something, I know you have more classes later." Kyungsoo points at the neglected food sitting on the table. 

"Yes, dad." Baekhyun says, smiling as the other slightly nudges him with his own shoulder.

***

By the time he reaches the end of the first day, he's convinced that he was going to be ready to go home and take the fattest nap. But some how he found the energy to make it over to the soccer field. Plopping down beside Kyungsoo as he sat playing with his phone in the bleachers, the slight chill in the air not uncomfortable, but it would get there the longer you sat. 

"How long have they been at it?" 

"About an hour now, Yeol wasn't kidding, they've been going hard." Kyungsoo's eyes flicker towards the field for a moment, looking for the familiar red hair under the field lights, pleased that he was still alright his gaze shifts to Baekhyun. 

Who was openly staring at the field with the most pine ridden expression, Kyungsoo smiles, shaking his head. "You should just go and say something to him, you look like a love sick puppy." 

Baekhyun's attention shifts from the field to his best friend. "I've already embarrassed myself once, I don't think I could go through it a second time today." He groans.

"I mean... that's life, but if you continue to wait. Someone else might sweep your Prince Charming off of his feet." Soo leans his chin on the palm of his hand. "No one said you have to ask him immediately out on a date, but just talking to him like a normal human being is a nice start.”

"But he's not just a human being, look at him Soo!”

Their attention turns to the soccer captain, running yet another one of their drills with an iron fist. Like the others covered in a soft sheen of sweat under the evening light, his athleticism was more pronounced here. revealing what was behind those cute round cheeks.

Kyungsoo just sighs, just patting Baekhyun on the head, sooner or later he was going to be forced to confront his crush, or let someone else take the lead instead. 

The pair continue their watch of the practice until it was clear that it had finally come to an end all of the players huddling in the center of the field before dispersing. Kyungsoo giving his best friend a pointed look before heading to his red haired giant of a boyfriend. 

But Baekhyun finds himself frozen in place, his usual amount of confidence gone like a piece of paper in the wind. 

And he finds himself about to turn around when he hears his named called, making him turn back to the voiced, face with the most unimaginable possibility of his crush coming towards him in all of his glory. 

His brain seemed to go into cliche mode as it slowed down the run for him, only realizing that the man is now right in front of him when they make direct eye contact. 

He could see the seniors lips forming words.

He blinks. "I'm sorry, what?" 

The older student gives him another bright gummy smile. "You're Baekhyun right?" 

He's sure that he gapes like a fish for a moment before finding words. "Yes that's me.”

"We share Professor Kim's class together?”

He nods. 

"I hope it isn't too much of a favor to ask... but I'm kind of struggling with a concept in the class, and I was told that you were the one to come to." 

Baekhyun's kind of startled as his brain processes the information, his crush is standing in front of him asking him for help. 

"I... Yeah, I'd be happy to help. When are you free?" 

Things move quickly after the team captain shoots him another bright smile, and in a sort of blur they agree to meet this week after classes for an hour or two at the library.  "I'll see you then!" 

Baekhyun can only manage a nod as he watches the other student depart into another part of the field. 

"Well look at you,”

Baekhyun turns to see Kyungsoo approaching with a smile on his face, Chanyeol just behind him. 

"Told you it was easy." Kyungsoo throws an arm around his shoulders. 

"He was the one that approached me." 

"But still you talked to him, and you didn't simultaneously combust.”

Baekhyun acknowledges that that is indeed true, and that all he had left to do was wait, patiently. 

*** 

Waiting patiently was not as easy as he thought that it was going to be, the day of was, absolute torture, the approaching hour only seems to make him more anxious, doing the same thing that a lot of his peers did on a regular basis. Meeting at the library to work on a project or study for a class that they are all having a tough time with. 

How many of those were are with their crushes? 

He really didn't know, but as for him he was only trying to get through the session without a major blunder or further embarrassment of himself. 

That's how he found himself at the library on the agreed date, probably way too early, but no one else needed to know that. Besides it allowed him to distract himself from what was going to come by getting some other work done. 

However its all brought back in the moment when his phone buzzes on the table beside him, the screen lighting up with a message from Minseok stating that he had arrived. This nearly has Baekhyun choking on his coffee but he manages getting through typing a response back giving the senior his location in the library. 

“Baekhyun?” 

His head jerks up a little bit too fast from the block of text he had been unsuccessfully trying to absorb. “H-Hi…” He tries to offer an easy a smile. 

The senior takes a seat with a grateful smile, setting down his things. “Sorry, I’m late… one of my professors ran over.” 

Baekhyun shakes his head. “Not at all… it was fine, I got some other work anyhow.” He moves around a little in his seat. “Call it an impromptu motivation, now shall we get started?” 

Minseok gives him a little smile and nod, he has to pretend the simple action doesn’t make his heart want to soar out of the building. 

Soon it’s easy for Baekhyun to fall into the rhythm of going over the things that the older student was having trouble with. Baekhyun at least for the moment able to push back his feelings to the back of his mind. 

“Wow, you’re really good at this…” The senior compliments. “You teach this way better than the professor does.”

“Its nothing at all… I just really like the subject…” He looks down slightly at the compliment. “But thank you, do you think that you’ll be okay now? We can go over it again if you like.” 

The older student looks over the notes he has taken once again. “No, I think that I’ll be able to more than manage with this…” He looks up from his notes, giving him a smile. “Thank you.” 

Baekhyun is sure that just for a moment he actually blacked out a little, just managing a nod, he couldn’t fathom how anyone could be this stunning. 

“But maybe I should have your number just incase.” 

Baekhyun’s head whips up embarrassingly fast. “What…?” He knows he sounds probably dumb, gawking at him. 

“Your number, its okay if you don’t want to, we can do email if you want to.” The older man, looks at him, cattish eyes questioning. 

“Ah, no, no… we can exchange numbers!” He’s thankful that he gets the phone to the other man with limited shaking in his hands. He notes the way that Minseok puts his name into his phone, he’d added a little emoji at the side. “A soccer ball?” 

“So you know it’s me.” He replies with a slight smile.

“I can’t say that I know many Minseoks.” He replies shooting back a message and his name and an emoji too next to it. 

“A puppy?” Minseok asks in turn. 

Baekhyun shrugs, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. “My friends compare me to that a lot.” 

The older man is silent for a second, a little smile crossing his face as he looks Baekhyun over. “I think I agree with them.” 

Baekhyun doesn’t get a chance to respond to the comment, as Minseok’s phone buzzing disturbs his speech, and the other student is soon giving him an apologetic look saying that he has to go but that they definitely have to do this again. By the time the soccer captain is out of sight, Baekhyun is convinced that nothing was going to be able to get rid of the warm feeling that was forming in his chest. 

Not even the next morning when he walks into his vocal class and he’s greeted by his ever prevalent rival. Kim Jongdae, in the beginning he had approached the other with the intention of a friendship, but somewhere along the way with their vocal prowess it had become a full fledged rivalry, bickering and all. 

Even more so once they figured out they had the idea of securing the same feelings of a certain senior. 

Nothing ever nasty, but they tended to be able to get under each others skin a lot of the time. 

And perhaps there was a hint of something else there too. 

But this morning, all of that seemed to glide right over his head as he filtered into his seat for the morning. Minseok actually wanted to study with him again sometime, and had asked for his number with out preamble from him. He thought that the whole thing might have been one hopeful dream but the number saved in his contact made him smile. 

“You okay over there, Byun?” Jongdae appears in his field of vision, today his hair styled away from his forehead, round framed glasses punched on his nose, dark jeans and a basic white T-shirt tucked into the pants. 

“Yeah… What about you? Got a hot date?” He looks his outfit up and down with a small smirk. 

“No, I don’t need an excuse to dress up… besides I’m sure that I’m more likely to have a date anyways.” He crosses his arms.

Baekhyun just hums. “That would require you getting someone’s number, and we both know that you don’t have the guts to ask Minseok.”

Jongdae leans on his table then. “You say this like we aren’t in the same boat.” 

Baekhyun only allows himself to give the other student a smirk as their professor enters the classroom, cutting the banter short and sending Jongdae to his own spot with one last small huffing glare. But like the rest of the time since he had woken up that morning he was in a good mood and it seemed that it would only get better, he for once had one step ahead, where Jongdae had never been too shy when given the chance to talk to the object of their crushes. 

Something that Baekhyun had failed at, whenever given the perfect chance. 

But perhaps that was all about to turn around, and he was going to have the semester of his dreams, hitting every check mark on his plan. 

At least that’s what he thought, until their professor announces partner projects. 

“Kim Jongdae and Byun Baekhyun.” 

And as their eyes meet across the room, he realizes that his plan maybe wasn’t going to go off without a few hitches. 

_Fuck._

_***_

Sitting down to work on a project with his rival ended up being a lot more silent and awkward than he had ever thought possible. The pair had just spent the good part of ten minutes sitting in relative silence, looking at each other and then not looking at each other. Choosing to sit in silence, waiting for either to give in and speak first. 

With a sigh, Baekhyun somewhat unwillingly gives in. 

“Look, I know this isn’t either of our ideal situation… But I know that both of us aren’t going to sacrifice a grade. Much less a performance.” 

The other man silently looks at him from his chair in the practice room that they had both obviously become their favorites, it was often that both of the students could be seeing leaving the room. Thus meeting here had been some sort of unspoken agreement, and it would pay off if they could be cordial with each other long enough to get the work done. 

“Do you think we could come to agree on that much?” He leans back against his chair, waiting for some type of response from the other man. 

“Yes.” Jongdae nods. “I would be obviously beneficial to neither of us if our grade is bad.” He begins digging through his bag producing what looks to be a well worn and loved music book. 

Baekhyun looks away pulling out his own music scoring notebook, prepared to maybe not have such an easy time with this project. But he’s surprised to find that they are relatively the same when going through this process and use of vocal techniques that is both fair and equal of their talents. 

Of course there were things that they disagreed about, but it seemed that it was almost too smooth in nature. 

“Wow… I never thought about it that way.” He remarks leaning back to take a look at the words and the notes that they had taken down from the progress they had made. 

Jongdae lets out a huff of air. “Didn’t know you could think.” 

Baekhyun just glares at him. “Can’t you just take a complement? We were actually working well together, I think it's ironic.” 

The other vocal student just looks at him for a moment, silence once again falling between him but he doesn't say anything more to that. 

“Is there anything else you want to go over? Or are we done here?” 

Baekhyun’s phone buzzes and distracts him from his answer, the screen lighting up with a simple message however the name attached to it is what has him smiling. 

It was Minseok. 

He looks up from the device. “No, I think we’re done here for today.” 

Jongdae nods without another word and they begin packing up their things the bags in between them, filling what little space there was between them in the silence. It was even still a little more awkward when they had to leave the same way going down the hallway. It wasn't filled with any of the bickering that usually filled between them, perhaps the mutual workshop had gained this one moment of begrudging respect. 

They finally make it outside of the music building a sort of awkward pause, do they say goodbye? 

"Baekhyun!" A familiar voice calls to him, pulling his attention away from phone, as well as Jongdae. 

"Sunbae!" He says.

The older man stops in front of him, with a slight smile. "Hey! I guess it's good that I ran into you here." 

"What's up?" He's quite aware that Jongdae was just hanging around in the background. 

"I had a question about one of our assignments and was little confused." His eyes drift to just behind him. "But I can see that you're busy." 

Baekhyun's own eyes shift over to Jongdae who was meeting him with a gaze of his own. "No not at all we were just finishing up, I can help you." He holds up his phone. "I'm guessing that's what the text message was about." 

The older student nods, with a smile. "I was going to head to a little cafe around the street? Does your friend want to join?" 

"I think--" 

"I'd love to." Jongdae intercepts his rebuttal, with a smile. "Thank you, Sunbae." 

He nods. "Lets go then." 

Baekhyun smiles at Minseok with a nod adjusting his backpack. 

Jongdae shoots him a smile as he passes him to follow after the older student. 

Baekhyun only manages a breath and a small glare before he's following behind the two others as well. 

***

Sitting in the cafe, brought back up the tension around the pair of vocal students and he felt like all of the the semi-peace that they had was a complete illusion. As he sat there sipping his drink its as if there was a little cloud hovering over his head as he watched Jongdae engage in conversation with Minseok. The older man giving his upmost attention while the other was talking. 

He just sat silently watching the two talk on, that his before the two cat like eyes turn their attention to him once more. 

"Oh, you're silent..." Minseok notes. 

"I didn't want to interrupt." He replies, taking another sip, the plastic cold against his finger condensation pooling there lightly. "You two seemed to be getting along just fine." 

Minseok smiles at that. "Still we were talking around you, that isn't very nice... You two are classmates right?" 

"Yeah..." Baekhyun answers. 

Unfortunately, says a little snarky voice in his head. 

Jongdae across from him, takes a sip of his own drink, eyes sparkling a little mischievously. 

"You two must be ridiculously talented. Both being vocalists right?" 

"I'm not too shabby..." 

The other man smiles, the curve of his mouth going up impishly, into the sort of smirk that he had seen way too often. "He's being modest, he's a lot better than he would give himself credit for... we're both decent." 

Baekhyun just looks at him strangely. "Yeah... we're both pretty good. Good enough to be put into a project together I suppose." 

Minseok nods. "I'm sure you're both impressive, and that all of what you do would go completely over my head." 

Jongdae leans a little forward. "I doubt that, I'm sure that you would pick it up just as fast as you do anything else." 

The flattery was kind of obvious and he had to keep himself from rolling his eyes, he just turns his attention from the other man to Minseok. 

"You mentioned you needed help?" 

"Oh!" As if remembering why he was supposed to be there, his already round eyes widening a little more as he dug through his bag to look for the assignment he was having trouble with. 

"It was this section here..." He sets down the paper, pulling it between them and scooting a little closer. 

He spends the next few moments explaining the material to the older student, who was staring at the paper with rapt attention, he has to keep himself from getting distracted from staring at his features, that and the reminder of Jongdae sitting at the corner of his vision was the only thing keeping him from completely taking the moment to appreciate Minseok's features. 

"You were actually really close, just a few things here and there sent you the wrong way." 

Minseok smiles again. "Ah, I see..." He scribbles some notes down on the paper. "Thank you again, I feel kinda stupid now that you pointed it out." he chuckles, one hand scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment. 

"Not at all, I did the same thing in the beginning." Baekhyun leans back a little in his seat. 

Minseok smiles again, and then his phone buzzes in his pocket. "Excuse me, I need to take this." 

The pair still sitting at the table send him off. 

"Well, look at you, confident aren't we?" Jongdae comments. 

Baekhyun lets out a little scoff. "Acting a little sweet aren't we? You should stop it... it's weird, and unlike you Kim. people don't like artificially sweet things.”

"Speak for yourself, Byun." He leans on the table. "I've never seen you so quiet, it actually doesn't suit you." He throws another smile in his direction. 

Baekhyun lets out a little huff, opening his mouth to get a little retort out, but before he can Minseok returns to the table leaving them at a glaring impasse. 

He wasn't going to let Jongdae get to him, project or not.


End file.
